Elisenda Fábregas was born in 1955 in Terrassa, Barcelona, where she received extensive training as a pianist at the Barcelona Conservatory. In 1978, she came to the US as a Post-Doctoral Fulbright scholar and earned a masters degree from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College. While pursuing her piano studies at The Juilliard School she absorbed elements of the European classical music tradition, in which her music is strongly rooted: she integrates organic logical structures with freer Mediterranean-flavored harmonies and rhythms. Often her music has the rhythmic drive and fire of Spanish music and dance, the lyricism and color of Catalonian folk, and a Bachian love for voice-leading. Elisenda's music has been described as passionate, lyrical and sensuous. The New York Times has praised her for writing with an "imaginatively colored tonal idiom".
Fábregas' music has been performed throughout the world. Upcoming performances include a premiere of Gacelas de amor for soprano, flute and piano based on poetry by Federico García Lorca. Written for male soprano Jörg Waschinski, Christiane Meininger and Rainer Gepp, the premiere will take place on June 18, 2009, at the Center for International Light Art in Unna (Germany). The premiere of Goyescas for flute, viola and piano will take place at the Festival Internacional (Concerts de Mitjanit) de Musica de Sitges on June 28, 2009. The original version of Goyescas for flute & guitar (2008) was written for and premiered by flutist Marina Piccinini and guitarist Emanuele Segre at The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society on January 23, 2009. The choral work titled the Flaming Rock had its New York premiere on March 7, 2009, by Cantori New York. Highlights of the 2007-08 season included several premieres. Voices of the rainforest for flute, cello & piano (2008) was written for the Meininger-Trio and performed at Nachtmusik - WDR Broadcasting Station in Cologne (Germany) on March 15, 2008, with additional performances at the Berlin Ibero-American Institute (in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Berlin) and Oro Verde (Tropical Rainforest Foundation), and in Frankfurt; The Flaming Rock (2008) for choir and string quartet, commissioned by the Allegro-Chorale & Orchestra and premiered in November 2008 by the Cassatt String Quartet in Odessa and Midland, TX; Homenaje a Mompou (2007), commissioned by Dutch pianist Marcel Worms in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Federico Mompou's death, which received multiple performances in Holland and the U.S. in November 2007 and January-February 2008. Other performances in the 2007-08 season included over twenty performances of Voces de mi tierra (2003) by the Murali Trio in Belgium and The Netherlands; The Season Chamber Players in the Northeast, U.S.; Trio Noir in Augsburg, Germany; and The Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio and Boerne, TX. Additional performances by the Toki Ensemble at the Donnell Library Center Auditorium in New York City; the Annabella Gonzalez Dance Company; cellist Larissa Groeneveld in Hollad; St. Bart's Concert Series, NYC; CRR Konser Salonu in Instanbul, Turkey; McGill University in Montreal, CA; National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) in Providence, RI; and concerts in several cities in Germany. In March of 2007 Elisenda was the composer in residence at the Taos Chamber Music Group Concert Series.
Highlights of the 2006-07 season included over thirty performances of Hommage a Mozart, a piano piece commissioned by Eric Himy commemorating the 250th Anniversary of Mozart's birth. This work was premiered at La Salle Cortot in Paris and later at the Norris Arts Center in Chicago; The Music Festival of the Hamptons; Les Moments Musicaux de Notre Dame in Marseille; the KWCMS Chamber Music Series in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada; Concert Theatre des Varietes de Monaco; the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts in Muskegon, MI; Soirees Musicales in Dayton, OH; the Embassy Series in Washington D.C., as well as additional performances in Prague, Buffalo, Oregon, Utah, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Texas. Subsequently Hommage a Mozart was recorded by Eric Himy on the Centaur label and it is published by Friedrich Hofmeister Musik Verlag in Germany.
Other performances of Elisenda's music were conducted at the 2006 NATS in Miami; the Chautaqua Institute in NY; 2006 National Society of Composers and College Music Society in Texas; 2006 International Alliance for Women in Music in Miami; 2006 ASTA/NSOA National Conference in Kansas City; Westminster Choir College, NJ; and SOLI Chamber Music Series in San Antonio, TX. Her work Colores Andaluces for cello & piano was premiered at the 2006 Celloherbst Festival in Germany by cellist Francoise Groben and at the CRR Konser Salonu in Instanbul, Turkey, on February 2007.
Elisenda has been living in the U.S. since 1978, when a Fulbright grant brought her to The Juilliard School where she received a Masters in piano performance and later a doctorate in music from Columbia University Teachers College. She began composing at The Juilliard School in 1985, working with several dance companies and choreographers in New York City, including Jerome Robbins, Hector Zaraspe, Janet Soares and Anna Sokolow. In 1986, The Maria Benitez Spanish Dance Company commissioned her to write Reflexiones for solo piano, which was premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. followed by the Joyce Theater in New York and by numerous performances throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. Since then Elisenda has written works for chamber music, voice, piano and orchestra. Her works have been commissioned by the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Texas Music Teachers Association, Dale Warland Singers, Maria Benitez Spanish Dance Co., and by numerous chamber groups and soloists. Fabregas's music has been heard in Mexico, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, China, throughout Europe and the U.S. (including The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Merkin Concert Hall and The Joyce Theater in New York City), The 1995 United Nations Conference in Beijing, China, 2003 & 2004 Bodensee International Music Festival, and 2005 Sanssouci Musikfestpiele Potsdam both in Germany, and "Around New York", WQXR-FM "New York Spotlight," WDR (Nachmusik) and SWR (Germany), and the Voice of America. In 2000, Elisenda received the Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year Award from the Music Teachers National Association in Washington D.C.
Fábregas's music is published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie. In Paris, Friedrich Hofmeister MusikVerlag in Leipzig, Southern Music Co., and Hidden Oaks Music Company. Recordings of her music are available on the PROFIL EDITION Guenter Haenssler, Centaur Records, Eloquence label (ABC Classics) and Leonarda Productions.
As a pianist, she has performed throughout Spain, England, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, and the United States, appearing in Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and The Joyce Theater in New York City, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., The United Nations Conference in Beijing, The Place Theater in London, Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, and the Manuel de Falla International Festival in Granada, Spain.
In her New York debut in Carnegie Recital Hall she was praised by Tim Page of The New York Times as having "... fluid technique and a poet's command of musical shading." She has also performed live on WQXR-FM "New York Spotlight", WNYC-FM "Around New York", and the Voice of America.
Elisenda currently lives in Baltimore, MD, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Composition at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.